Thomas James Churchill

Thomas James Churchill (10 March 1824-14 May 1905) was Governor of Arkansas from 12 January 1881 to 13 January 1883, succeeding William Read Miller and preceding James Henderson Berry.

Biography
Thomas James Churchill was born in Louisville, Kentucky in 1824, and he served in the US Army's Kentucky mounted rifles during the Mexican-American War, during which he was a prisoner-of-war of Mexico. In 1848, he moved to Little Rock, Arkansas and married the daughter of US Senator Ambrose Hundley Sevier. He served as Postmaster of Little Rock from 1857 to 1861, and he offered his services to the Confederate States Army when the American Civil War broke out. Churchill commanded an Arkansas mounted rifle regiment at the First Battle of Bull Run in July 1861, and he was promoted to Brigadier-General on 4 March 1862. He commanded a division at the victory at the Battle of Richmond in Kentucky and received a thanks of the Confederate Congress on 17 February 1864; he was also captured at the Battle of Fort Hindman in 1863 and was later exchanged. Churchill went on to fight in the Red River Campaign, and he played a major role at the Battle of Jenkins' Ferry. On 17 March 1865, he was promoted to Major-General, and, after the war, he took part in the Brooks-Baxter War. He went on to serve as State Treasurer from 1874 to 1881 and Governor from 1881 to 1883, and he died in Little Rock in 1905 at the age of 81.